Principality of Quebec
The Principality of Quebec (French: la Principauté de Québec), known more commonly as Quebec, and less commonly as New France, is a large post-war nation situated along the Saint Lawrence river and parts of the northern coast of Lake Ontario. It is situated between New Canada to the west and north, as well as the Institute farther south. Quebec is a socialist constitutional monarchy, headed by a "supreme prince" who inherits the throne hereditarily. There is also an independent burgher congress which is an assembly of elected officials from each major city. Quebec is comprised of five provinces, with each province centered around one major city -- Montreal, the largest city and the seat of the burgher congress; New Quebec (formed by survivors of the original Quebec City), the second-largest city and home of the royal palace; Laval, site of Quebec's principle armory (a leftover from the pre-war American occupation, the result of anti-missile systems being tested); New Gatineau, one of the sites of the fiercest anti-American resistance movements; and New Acadia, a pocket of settlements along the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence river founded by New Brunswickers and New Englanders fleeing from the Continental United States. Since its founding, Quebec has been consistently at odds with New Canada, especially over jurisdiction over the more inland territories of Quebec and sovereignty over Ronto. Border skirmishes remain common, although no outright fighting has occurred since the early 2100s, as fighting between the two states proved extremely brutal on both sides. The Institute has had a similarly rough relationship with Quebec, and is the among the reasons New Acadia came into existence. As the Institute expanded, bringing its sphere of influence over much of New England, they pushed north, displacing settlements who didn't abide by their takeover. The Institute attempted to then take over some smaller Quebecker settlements in the south. The army at Laval was mobilized, and so ensued the Institute-Quebec war of 2197. The war was short, and lasted a mere three months as both sides ground against each other, eventually leading to a white peace. History Pre-War and the Great War During the American occupation of Canada during the 2070s, the Principality of Quebec arose as a resistance movement. It began with Renault LaRouge, a Marxist follower who resented the American presence in his home town. In an effort to cripple the Americans, LaRouge lead dozens of Québécois during guerrilla movements. He trained his makeshift soldiers in the art of guerrilla tactics, ranging from ambush to sabotage to semi-direct conflict he termed "fluid combat". Although meeting a decent amount of success in the field, despite the American claims to the contrary, internally they were fractured. LaRouge, by default being a communist, met with resistance from one of his commanders, Charles Olson. Olson believed that the existing social order should be respected after liberation, while LaRouge believed, as per Marxist ideology, that there should be a complete revocation of all middle and upper-class property. Eventually, Olson broke with LaRouge's leadership, taking with him a large portion of the guerrilla fighters. Infighting consumed the broken organization, and gradually LaRouge's side would fracture into ten separate factions, while Olson's would remain intact. Despite this, the war of independence would go on. Despite their portrayal in the American media, the Canadian rebels rarely fought the American military directly. Instead, they typically went head to head with the Office of Strategic Services Canadian division in subtle, quiet battles; raids, and black operations. The Canadians met lukewarm success, with whole cells tending to get wiped out at once, and with a disproportionate rate of failure overall. However, in the countryside their efforts managed to essentially cripple American supply lines perpetually, resulting in the Anchorage reclamation taking much longer than it would otherwise have taken. When the Great War finally came, Canada was largely seen as a non-target by enemies of the Americans -- only the westernmost and parts of the southeastern regions were directly targeted by the Chinese and other assailants. The sparesly-populated countryside was left almost intact, and a number of cities were saved by nuclear countermeasures (especially Laval, which was saved almost in its entirety by experimental American anti-bomb and anti-missile technology). Quebec, and several other cities, got hit hard enough that a majority of their populations died immediately. As all of this was happening, the Canadian rebels were hiding out in the Otish Mountains. In the untargeted wilderness, the guerrillas were almost entirely safe from harm. Immediate postwar period When the bombs finally stopped falling, the rebels established temporary settlements in the wilderness, and survived for several years on their own. Amidst this, Charles Olson remained the binding force for most of them, leading them as they moved around from place to place in search of good places to live. Meanwhile, the survivors of southern Quebec and New Brunswick attempted to survive in the wake of a total breakdown of government. The already shaky occupational governments of each surviving city which had been backed by the United States were almost immediately overthrown, and their supporters killed or expelled. Those Americans and their supporters who survived this turbulent period fled to the safety of several American bases which remained operational, who would later form the foundation of Enclave operations in the area. The environmental effects of the nuclear war only came into force several years after the war itself. Between highly-radioactive snow, a major cold shift, and complete lack of sun for years as a result of radioactive material in the atmosphere, famine very quickly shattered whatever tenuous organization had been built in the various cities, especially those which had been hit the hardest by the actual nuclear war. A die-off ensued, with the overwhelming majority of the population of the entire region succumbing to either starvation, thirst, or radiation poisoning. Communications which had remained operational were abandoned, entire city blocks and towns vacated, and whatever hope of restoring Old World advancements evaporated. Those few who survived did so in packs, gangs, tribes, or "families", who roved the vacant and decaying cities in search of their next meal and water source. Quebec was on the verge of a total extinction. Olson and the Laval Armory Among the few surviving American bases in Canada was the Laval Armory. Laval had survived almost entirely thanks to a prototype RobCo anti-missile defense system which was on trial by the American government for potential use throughout the continent. By pure coincidence, General Buzz Babcock himself was present at the Laval Armory at the time of the Great War, as well. However, while Laval was spared direct impact, it was not spared the other, subsequent effects of the war. Consequently, the American survivors quarantined themselves, locking themselves into the base while the majority of the citizens of Laval died from exposure just as in the rest of the Quebec. And that was how the situation remained in Laval, with the Americans surviving for several years on their remaining rations while the people outside the fort's gates died in droves. When Charles Olson and his followers arrived in the city, en route to Quebec about a decade after the war (and just as the aftereffects of the war were beginning to come to a halt), they found the streets empty and without any semblance of order. There were no fewer than twenty-five tribes and gangs which had formed, squabbling over the few remaining sources of clean water and food. Initially mistaking them for American soldiers, as they carried American armor and weapons, Olson did not hesitate to wipe out the little groups when they attempted to ambush his followers as they made their way through the city. It was only when one of the assailants was actually captured that he realized they were mostly French-speakers -- and not, as he had initially suspected, American remnants. Though he put out an order to try and be as non-lethal as possible from that point forward, the death toll continued to rise as Olson's group made its way through the city. When they finally reached the Armory, roughly a quarter of the survivors of Laval (not including the armory survivors) were dead as a result of Olson's group. It was the only place in the whole city which still had power, making it stand out like a sore thumb amidst the blackened highrises which dominated the skyline. When Olson's men raised the old Quebec flag, the guards at the walls went and got Buzz Babcock to talk to them. There was a heated exchange between the rebel and his oppressor. But despite past grievances, both were clear-headed enough to see that continuing decades-old and inconsequential fights would not help anyone. After some discussion, it was made apparent that both Olson and Babcock wanted to restore order to Laval. In order to do so, an arrangement was set up whereby Olson's followers would be allowed unrestricted access to the armory, while Babcock was offered control over the city as well as fresh water and real food for his men. Emissaries from Olson were dispatched to discuss with the remaining survivors in the city, in what's known as the Laval Reclamation Project. Arrangements were made -- universally, fresh water, power, safety and food would be provided to the tribes, and in exchange the tribe members would hand their arms over to Olson's men and accept Babcock's authority. Many jumped at the chance to see order restored, having memories of the prewar civilization. However, there were some who resisted. These few, who were vastly outnumbered by the people who agreed to Olson's terms, ostracized themselves, taking flight to the north and west out of Laval. A very small number of that minority attempted to fight off Olson's and Babcock's followers, but they were so outnumbered and outgunned that there were only a few dozen casualties overall. The Montreal Congress Montreal, the largest city in Quebec at the time of the Great War, went largely untouched due to the fact that it wasn't home to any major military installation or other point of strategic interest. Though it was in close proximity to Laval, very few missiles aimed at the armory there actually went off, further preventing annihilation. After the overthrow of the Occupational government, and the expulsion of American forces in the city, Montreal quickly reformed into a sort of federal state, operating on a congress of nineteen representatives -- one for each borough -- headed by two governors (for twenty-one total members). And unlike nearly every other community in the region, when the aftereffects came into full bore against Montreal, the city did not fracture and separate, but instead remained unified. Through coordinated scavenging efforts and rationing, death by famine and thirst was minimized; a broken-down shipment of RadAway and Rad-X allowed much of the population to stave off radiation sickness through the worst of the radiation storms that dominated the first decade after the War. As radiation first began to overtake some boroughs, leaking in through the sewage system and along the riverfront, evacuations were conducted and quarantines enforced in the worst-struck areas, reducing the chance of lethal radiation exposure. These practices helped to limit death by radiation exposure. Regardless of these things, there was still a significant number of casualties as a result of the War's aftereffects, reducing the population to roughly one-hundred ninety-five thousand people, one-third of the original survivor population of six-hundred fifty-thousand. In the wake of this spectacular loss of life, the Congress ordered the creation of a militia force and immediately locked down the city, declaring martial law throughout. The loss of large number of the city's boroughs to radiation leakage meant that the old Congress was no longer valid on the principle that many representatives were representing boroughs that no longer existed. The borders of the city's remaining boroughs were redrawn according to population density, and by 2096 the Congress had been reduced from nineteen representatives to seven. Category:Groups Category:Post-War Countries Category:Canada